Naruto : Legacy
by falconwolf91
Summary: Naruto gets transported to an alternate universe where he has a twin sister and a different fourth hokage.
1. Chapter 1

**NARUTO: LEGACY**

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

**Prologue**

**(Naruto Age – 6 years)**

Naruto has no idea how he came to be here. The last thing he remembers is his fight with Uchiha Madara and then waking up as a 6 year old in his apartment. But that wasn't the most shocking news. He somehow has a twin sister now living with him. That's the conclusion he came to anyway after the girl who looks like his mother jumps on him and called him 'nii-chan'.

He kept quiet as he tried to make sense of how he came to be here while his twin sister kept on babbling about getting ready to eat breakfast. He learned her name through her babbling as Kasumi.

"Okay kasumi-chan! Let's get ready before going for breakfast." answered hoping to divert her attention so that he has more time to think about his current situation.

After getting ready, Naruto let Kasumi lead him to a restaurant near the apartment. As he was walking he casually looked at the Hokage Mountain and got the biggest shock! There in place of the yondaime hokage instead of his father Minato Namikaze there was another person whom he couldn't recognize.

While having his breakfast in the restaurant he came to the conclusion that he must be in an alternative universe. Since he is in an alternative universe his first priority should be to learn the differences between his universe and this one. He wondered whether Kyuubi was sealed within him or not. He tried to sense Kyuubi within him but he couldn't feel the beast. He supposed that perhaps he need to visit the seal to confirm the presence of Kyuubi.

"Nii-chan are you alright? You have been acting very strangely today." His sister enquired with a tone of worry in her voice.

"I am fine. Just thinking" he answered hoping to assuage her worry."Let's go and play in the park".

He spent the whole day playing with his sister in the park only stopping to have brief lunch at the same restaurant. As the day progressed he noticed that none of the other children played with them and the adults sent brief glares at them when they were not looking but more at kasumi than him. He thought that maybe his sister contained the Kyuubi and it would be the most logical choice to since the two previous Kyuubi jinchuriki were both female uzumakis. He just needed to confirm it.

After he was sure that his sister was sleeping he tried to enter his seal but found that he couldn't enter it. He checked for the seal on his belly but since it's only visible when he was channelling his chakra he couldn't confirm its presence. So for the rest of the night he tried to access his chakra. By the time he was tired he managed to access his chakra but didn't have the energy to channel them through his chakra coils. With nothing left to do he slept for the night.

Next day arrived too early for his liking. While having bath he channelled some chakra to his coils and saw that no seal appeared on his belly. This confirmed that his sister was the one in whom the Kyuubi was sealed. He wondered if his sister inherited their mother's special chakra. He supposed that he will have to find out.

For the next few days he continued to spend his days with his sister playing in the park, roaming the village streets and sometimes just staying in their room. He noticed that his sister was more subdued when she was in the presence of others and never moved too far from him. He thought that maybe the villager's glares were getting to her. So he started glaring back at them and hoping to diver their attention to him. He could see that it was working to an extent, so he kept at it. He enjoyed playing with his sister and just spending time with her since he never had any siblings or for that matter friends in his childhood.

During the nights he continued trying to access his chakra and channelling it into his coils so that they can get used to it. After about a week of doing this he noticed that his pitiful reserves have increased slightly.

He also learned the identity of fourth hokage who happened to be Hatake Sakumo 'The White Fang of Konoha'.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

**(1 month later)**

Naruto crept silently through the dark streets of konoha and avoid detection as he tried to reach the Academy building.

In the past month Naruto has slowly developed his chakra and has been doing the chakra building exercises. He discovered that by combining nature chakra with his normal chakra though he can't achieve sage mode by mixing them in unequal proportions (nature chakra less than spiritual and physical chakra) and increasing the pressure on his chakra coils he could increase his chakra capacity. He also noticed that he had limited sensing capabilities when he does that. Through this he discovered that both of them were being watched by Anbu during the nights. He was just lucky that they didn't detect his chakra surges since they were very weak when he accessed chakra for the first time.

His chakra has increased to the level that he can make two kagebunshins without collapsing. He practised the hand seals, replacement technique and the henge technique to get the muscle memory. He completed the Tree climbing exercise in his room by trying to climb the walls.

Right now he left his kagebunshin with his sleeping sister so that the Anbu watching them wouldn't be suspicious. He figured that he should target the Academy building first since they will have information regarding the history of elemental nations since it would help answer the questions of How Hatake Sakumo became the Fourth Hokage and why he and his sister go by Uzumaki rather than Namikaze if his father wasn't the fourth Hokage.

After going through the standard academy history books he found out that the main difference between the two worlds was that Sakumo in this universe has completed his mission rather than choosing to save his teammates. Due to this the Third Great Shinobi war almost ceased with the completion of his mission and he was soon elected to be the Yondaime Hokage. Another major change was that the Third Great Shinobi war occurred in two phases, i.e. one before the mission of Sakumo's and the other started after a brief 8 months of ceasefire between the nations with the attack by Iwa. The war was quickly ended by his father with his Flying Thunder God Jutsu. He even got the name of "Yellow flash" for it. Later when the Kyuubi attacked his father is hailed as hero for stopping it. He concluded that they weren't given his father's name due to his enemies.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

**(Naruto Age – 7)**

It's been a year since he arrived in this Universe and Naruto was happy with his life. He mostly spent his time with his sister and making her happy. She is no longer afraid to be in other's presence but still clings to him. He tried to get them admitted into the Academy but they were rejected saying that they need to be at least 8 years old. They were also visited by Sandaime Hokage twice and by Kasumi's reaction he deduced that he had visited them before.

In regards to his training he could be considered to be at genin level overall but the area he most excelled was in stealth by necessity. He also increased his chakra levels to that of a chunin.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

**(Konoha Hokage's Office)**

In the Hokage's office Hatake Sakumo, Sarutobi Hiruzen and Shimura Danzo are meeting to discuss regarding nine tails jinchuriki.

"We need to do something about the influence Naruto has on his sister." said Danzo.

"Yes, kasumi seems to listen only to Naruto on all matters from the observations conducted by the Anbu. This could be problem when they grow up. We need to lessen the influence he has on her." says Sakumo.

"We should separate them. Give me the girl and I will train her to be able to use the nine tails chakra." suggests Danzo.

"No, she is too young to be able to use nine tails chakra. She should at least be at genin level before we teach her how to access its chakra and we can't just separate them they might protest it." says hiruzen.

"All right we will separate them for 1 year by having the boy being adopted and then they can meet at the Academy when they both join next year. The girl can be manipulated to not put up a struggle by suggesting that his brother will not be associated with her anymore and not suffer due to her." Sakumo says with a grim face.

Danzo gets a calculative look in his eye "There might be a problem with that. The boy is very protective of her and he may not agree to it. We should have the girl to be adopted then we can free her of his brother's influence and slowly condition her to be more influenced by us." 'After that I can gain the loyalty of the boy by providing him Shinobi training as a precaution to control her.'

Sakumo sits back in his chair contemplating "All right we will proceed with your plan Danzo."

Sarutobi has a weary look on his face and turns to leave " I still don't think you should separate them."

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

**Author's Note: In this fic, Sakumo supports some objectives of Danzo. He is not as opposed to him as sarutobi is to Danzo.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter – 2**

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

* * *

**(Naruto Age -8)**

**Kasumi's POV...**

It's been a year since she started living with her guardian. Her life has changed completely from the time she lived with her brother. She was not allowed to go to the park everyday like she used to. She had to learn things taught to her by Hanare, her guardian during the day. She taught her how to read and write even though she knew how to do those saying that she wasn't taught properly. She made her do many chores such as setting the table, cleaning the house, cooking meals, doing laundry and the list goes on. When Kasumi tried to protest she rebuked her saying that a girl should be able to do all these things and that now was the time to learn how to do them. She was only allowed to play at the parks on Sundays. That was the only time she got to meet her brother and play with him.

The one thing she disliked the most in her new life was that she could only be with her brother one day a week. She wished that all days were Sundays so that she could be with her brother every day. She also dislikes how Hanare always argues about the things her brother told her saying he was wrong.

She was at least happy that things between her and Naruto-nii were back to the same. She still remembered how her brother used to be different when spending time with her for the first month. She felt really sad and afraid that her brother would stop talking with her then. She knew that she hurt her brother when she chose to live with her guardian. She didn't want to cause trouble for her brother. She is still trying to figure out the conversation she overheard between hokage-jiji and Hanare when she came to adopt her.

* * *

**Flashback (1 year ago)**

Kasumi didn't know what to say when a strange woman came to their apartment and said that she wanted to adopt her. She disagreed when she learnt that she will be separated from her brother but the strange woman saying to think for a week and give the answer when she came to visit her again got up and left. After deciding that her answer won't change she ran after her to say that her decision won't change and not come back. But before she could reach her the woman exited her apartment and closed the door. She could hear her talking outside the door with the Hokage-jiji. Being curious she tried to hear what they were talking about.

"So did she agree to come live with you Hanare?" spoke the old voice of the Hokage.

"No. she didn't agree to be separated from her brother." came the voice of Hanare.

"I was afraid that she was going to say that. I hoped that having her live with you we can alleviate the growing hatred towards the boy. It appears that the villagers are starting to hate both the girl and the boy and Naruto haven't helped the matters by glaring at the villagers."

"You think separating them will solve the problem?"

"It will at least reduce the hostility towards the boy and I was thinking of having kasumi stay mostly indoors with you teaching her for most of the time. You know the saying 'Out of sight out of mind', I think it would work to certain extent in kasumi's case. "

"It might work but I don't think she will agree to live with me. I told her to think for a week and then give the answer and I am not getting my hopes up. Let's go."

She could hear their footsteps heading away from the door and she was shocked to learn that the villagers hate them because of her. She always thought they just didn't like her and Naruto. She thought of going after them and asking why she was hated but she couldn't bring herself to do so.

She knew that they wouldn't answer her as Naruto already asked the Sandaime Hokage when he gave them this apartment to live in because the matron at the orphanage was neglecting them but he just didn't give an answer then and she doubted he will answer her now. She was also afraid of letting them know that she overheard their conversation. She resolved to find out the reason on her own.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"You think that worked?" asked a sceptical Hanare.

"Yes, she definitely 'overheard' us talking and that should affect her significantly to change her decision." answered Sarutobi.

"But don't you think that her brother will be against this?"

"He will be. But she would still agree to live with you if only to save her brother. This should create a wedge between them for some time. We should capitalise on that and establish our influence on her during that period. It will be your job to do this. Be prepared."

"I am ready for this mission, Sandaime-sama."

"Right then. My Kagebunshin is at the park talking with Naruto. Go inform him that you done with kasumi but don't let Naruto see you. Use you Anbu gear to hide your identity."

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Kasumi observed the villagers to see their reaction towards them. She never noticed before because she was afraid to look at them before but now she needed to know. She saw that her brother was giving fierce glares towards anyone glaring at her and she could see that they were angry with her brother for glaring at them. She noticed that some of them were just glaring at her brother and totally ignoring her.

She didn't want her brother to be hated because of her. That was the first time she thought about accepting to live with her guardian. But she was afraid to be away from her brother. She never stayed away from him for more than a hour. She was terrified to be live without her brother. She was also afraid of her brother's reaction. She hoped that her brother wouldn't hate her if she accepted. But as the week passed and observing the villagers she decided to accept the offer.

The day finally came when Hanare came to visit her. This time her brother stayed with her along with the Sandaime hokage.

"So, have you decided? You still don't want to live with me?" asked Hanare.

"I... "Kasumi couldn't give an answer she just kept looking at her brother who was looking concernedly at her.

"If I agreed will I still be able to visit my brother?" she finally forced herself to look away from her brother and said those words.

Hanare seemed surprised by my question "Yes you can still be with your brother as long as it doesn't interfere with the tasks I give you."

Kasumi was relieved to hear that. She was afraid that she wouldn't be allowed to visit her brother. "I agree."

"That's good Kasumi-Chan and don't worry you can visit you brother frequently." Sandaime-jiji reassured her. She couldn't look at her brother. He had been silent for the whole time and she was afraid of his reaction.

"Let's pack your things so that you can move to my house." Hanare said enthusiastically.

"What! Right now?" asked Kasumi. She didn't think she had leave so soon.

"Yes. But if you want we can postpone it."

Kasumi looked at her brother finally and he seemed to be shocked. She didn't know what to say to Naruto. She thought it would be better to leave now or she might not bring herself to leave later. She was also afraid of her brother' reaction. "Ok."

Hanare packed all her belongings into a scroll and kasumi took the photo of her brother and her from the night stand to go with along her belongings. After everything was ready she just hugged her brother tightly and couldn't stop the tears from her eyes anymore.

"Nii-chan you will visit me every day right? Then we can go and play in the park just like we do now." Kasumi said to Naruto hoping that Naruto doesn't hate her.

"Yes. I will visit you everyday kasumi-chan. Don't worry." Naruto said finally.

Hanare laid a hand on kasumi's shoulder to calm her. "You don't need to worry. Everything will be fine. "

With that Kasumi free herself from Naruto and left with Hanare.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

**(Hokage's office)**

"It looks like the plan worked." Said Sakumo "But don't think it will raise questions from kasumi by informing her that villagers hate her? She might also hate konoha when she finally learns of Kyuubi."

"I couldn't think of any other way to separate them." admitted Sarutobi "We just need to influence her way of thinking and make sure that she doesn't take the news negatively. It shouldn't be too difficult."

"I thought our goal was to separate them completely. Now the brat can still come in contact with her. How does that limit the influence he has on her?"asked Danzo.

"Separating them completely would turn kasumi against us. Naruto isn't happy with her decision to live with her Hanare and we can use this to paint him in negative light. It might not be an immediate effect but slowly we can reduce his influence and even turn her against him."

"Well then it will be your job to oversee this Hiruzen. You and Hanare have to increase the influence you have on her before you can sabotage her relationship with her brother." Said Sakumo.

"Don't worry. It shouldn't be a big problem. I have selected Hanare specifically for this mission. She should get the job done."

**(End of Flashback)**

* * *

Kasumi could still remember the first few days of her stay here and how terrified she was. She has to get used to live with Hanare and adjust to her new life. Her brother was distant towards her and she couldn't bear that her brother might hate her.

She didn't know what happened but after sometime her brother was back to normal and he was no longer distant towards her. She started to learn all sort of things from Hanare and Sandaime-jiji even if they made her do boring things most of the time.

She could see that her idea worked and her brother was not hated by the villager anymore. She didn't know how the villagers felt about her and she didn't find out why they hate her. She had asked Hanare once but she didn't get any answer from her.

She was excited to join the Academy this year as this will be the first step to become ninja. She was looking forward to it because not only will she learn cool things but she gets to be with her brother the whole day.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter – 3**

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

* * *

**IMPORTANT: For information regarding Hanare you can go to this page. ****Hanare**

**The reason why Hanare was chosen to do this mission is because of her unique ability to withstand any torture and mind reading techniques. This way the only people who will know about this mission will be Sakumo, Hiruzen, Danzo and Hanare and since obtaining information from the first three will be difficult if not impossible the chances of kasumi or Naruto ever learning of their plan will be zero unless one of them chose to do so.**

* * *

**(Naruto Age – 8)**

**Naruto POV...**

A lot has changed in the past year for Naruto. He had been living separately from his sister in their apartment alone just as he used to in his universe. The one thing he always wanted was someone to care for him and love him like a family and even though he had many friends he never found that in his universe and when he finally found that with kasumi he was overjoyed. He could definitely say that the time spent with his sister just enjoying their childhood was the best time of his life and that was taken from him.

* * *

**Flashback (1 year ago)**

Naruto and kasumi were just getting ready to leave their apartment and head to the park to play as per routine. Even though they were ignored and other kids don't allow them to join their games he and kasumi were just happy to play with each other. He never had anyone to play games with him when he was a child so it was new experience for him which he enjoyed. He took great happiness in the fact that kasumi loved him like a brother and he took every effort to make her happy.

So when they were visited by Sandaime hokage and an unknown woman who looked to be in her late twenties Naruto has a foreboding about the forthcoming conversation.

"Hello Kasumi, Naruto. I hope your having a very good day," greeted Sandaime hokage "By the way this is Hanare" he said introducing the unknown woman.

Naruto could tell that Hanare is a ninja just by looking at the way she held herself. She wore loose fitting clothes to hide her figure as well as her movements. She was tall and had medium length black hair. The most noticeable things about her are her eyes which have brown iris and black pupils and the beauty mark just below her right eye.

He had a feeling that he knew her from somewhere but he couldn't recall it.

"Kasumi, Hanare here wanted to speak with you so you both can stay here and talk. I will take Naruto to the park as I have something to discuss with him. Don't worry, I trust Hanare and you will be fine," with that Sarutobi lead Naruto away from the apartment before either of the twins could protest.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Sandaime hokage lead Naruto to the park and they were seated at one of the isolated benches away from other people.

"So, I bet you have questions about what I wanted to speak with you," started Sarutobi.

"Yes, why couldn't you speak with both of us at the same time and you left kasumi alone with a stranger she might be scared," growled Naruto

"Ha, it's that I couldn't speak with both of you at the same time, it's just that Hanare needed to speak with kasumi alone."

"What! Why does she need to speak with her alone?"

"Well, you know that I removed both of you from the orphanage because of the problems with the matron and I know that you are very happy to live in your apartment. But the issue is that there are some things that are taught at orphanage to every child in the absence of their parents which helps them later on in their life. Since you are a boy it doesn't make much difference as there isn't much that is taught but the girls need to know some things to live after they become adults and now is the time to teach them."

"But since you are removed from the orphanage kasumi doesn't get the opportunity to learn them. So I have been looking for someone to teach her and Hanare agreed to do it," finished Sarutobi.

"What does she need to learn anyway?" asked Naruto curious since he never knew about this.

"Ha, that's not something you need to learn right now. When you grow up you will know about it. Don't worry," said Sandaime hokage.

"Aw! Is there nothing I can do to convince you to tell me now," pleaded Naruto hoping the hokage would tell him.

"No. But there is a small problem Naruto," said the hokage seriously.

"What is it?"

"Well you see for kasumi to learn these things she needs to stay with Hanare and Hanare agreed to it but she only agreed to let kasumi to stay with her."

"What you are saying that we are to live separately?" asked a dumbstruck Naruto.

"Yes. I know that you don't want to separated from kasumi but this is for her benefit and it would only be for at most two years. Next year you will both join the academy and you can meet every day after that kasumi can live with you again. If you want I will provide a bigger apartment or the apartment next you for kasumi after that so that you will have more space. So you will be separated for only one year and you can still meet with her from time to time."

Naruto was instantly suspicious after hearing this. He knew that Hanare is a ninja and that if the hokage wanted her to do something she would do it without hesitation and the hokage wouldn't select her if she had any ill will towards them. The only conclusion he could come to was that they wanted to separate them and this was all a ruse but he couldn't figure out the reason behind it.

He was also fairly sure that kasumi wouldn't agree to it. So he couldn't understand what game Sandaime was playing with them. But before he could think further on it they were interrupted by the arrival of Anbu member and Sandaime got up and got ready to leave.

"I am sorry for this Naruto but this is for kasumi's welfare. Don't worry one year will be over before you know it," and with that he left.

With the departure of the Sandaime, Naruto quickly made his way towards the apartment.

When he arrived he noticed kasumi looking at the wall with faraway expression.

"Kasumi-chan are you alright," Naruto's voice broke her out of her daze "You seem to be a bit distracted."

"I am fine Naruto Nii-chan. Just thinking,"

"So what happened, what did you say to that lady?" asked Naruto.

"She said that I have to live with her away from you. Of course I said no straight away. She told me to think for a week and then give the answer."

"Good. Let's go to the park. We can play for at least two hours before lunch," said Naruto.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

For the past week Naruto has been trying to find the reason for the Sandaime to try to separate them and he was coming up blank. He had been so busy trying to find out the reason he paid little attention to anything else.

So when Hanare and Sandaime visited them, it was the first time that he noticed the change in kasumi. She looked to be very nervous and her shoulders were drooped as though she was carrying some great burden with her. She kept giving him looks as the other two people in the room settled themselves. He just looked at her concernedly hoping that everything was okay with her.

When she agreed to live with Hanare he was so shocked that he couldn't think anything. His mind just went blank. He was only able to snap out of it when kasumi hugged him and appeared to be crying. Not knowing what to do he just consoled her and watched as she left still standing there in shock at what just happened.

He tried to find a reason why kasumi changed her decision. At first he thought she might have been under a genjutsu but he knew that wasn't the case as he felt her chakra ever day when he entered the incomplete sage mode during the nights and never detected any foreign chakra in her except from the kyuubi's.

He thought she might have been threatened to agree but after some thinking he knew that wasn't the case as he stayed with her for the whole week and the only time someone could have threatened her would be when Hanare spoke to her at the start of the week. But if she did threaten her then she would have agreed then only instead of waiting for a week. Also he would have noticed if they threatened kasumi since she isn't that good at hiding her emotions and he would have noticed her fear if that was the case no matter how much less attention he paid to her.

The only conclusion he came to was that she somehow chose to leave on her own free will and it hurt him to even think about it.

He tried to do distract himself from thinking too much and keeping himself busy but he could never get himself to do so. He could only accept the truth that kasumi left of her own free will no matter how much it hurt.

He tried to find a reason for kasumi's decision to do so but he couldn't find any and he blamed himself. With that he sunk into depression thinking that he couldn't take care of her and that she left him because of that.

He didn't know how time passed after that. He just went through the motions of the day mechanically and didn't how long he stayed like that. He could remember meeting kasumi sometimes but he was so detached to the outside world that he hardly remembered anything.

Naruto busied himself by training his ninja skills and took care to a avoid alerting anyone about it by choosing abandoned training fields well away from other people. It took him about a month to snap out of his depressed state. When he could finally clear his mind he resolved that he will still protect and watch over kasumi because she was his sister and he knew that Madara would be coming after for the Kyuubi.

He made a habit of observing kasumi taking care to avoid the notice of Hanare in the house. It was the first time he paid any attention to kasumi during the month and he could tell that kasumi was unhappy to live here but he couldn't figure why she chose to do so.

He was ashamed that he neglected her wallowing in his misery and resolved to make things right between them.

So when he met kasumi again he tried to act like noting changed between them and that the last month events didn't take place. It was awkward at first but things returned to normal between them and kasumi was back to her bright cheerful self when she was with him.

Since he no longer spent any time with kasumi during the day he tried to gather information on the village. It was a difficult task since any information has to be gathered by performing surveillance but since he attracted so much attention to himself it was difficult.

So for the next two months he tried to be away from the public eye spending most of the time training and be as unobtrusive as possible. It worked and slowly the people started to ignore him.

He tried to find information regarding the changes between the two universes and so far the only things he could find was the Hatake Sakumo's mission. He found out that kakashi was still alive and that he didn't have a sharingan. He figured that without the death of his father his life may have taken a different course. He tried to find out if he was on his father's team but he couldn't do that without breaking into the hokage's office and looking at mission records. He somehow doubted his ability to pull it off. He found that he was a jounin and was at least as powerful as Asuma Sarutobi as they both seemed have about the same fame but were overshadowed by their fathers. He was currently working as Anbu captain.

He found that orochimaru had becoming a missing ninja in this universe as well but he couldn't find anything else on him and that Tsunade was still roaming the elemental nations gambling and running away from debt collectors.

Naruto wished not for the first time that someone documented all the events regarding the village as it would be easier for him to steal them than trying to figure out everything with the scarce amount of information available. He knew that wasn't the case as ninja rarely ever put anything on paper for fear of being stolen. The most that was ever documented were the ninja missions and trying to finding information would be a nightmare as the records were never left alone for any length of period and even then he had to try and shift through all the mission scrolls which numbered in thousands in a short amount of time.

He tried to find whether the uchiha are planning the rebellion but as he found out he couldn't even enter the compound without alerting them. He was just lucky that they bought his flimsy excuse of being lost.

He entertained the idea of revealing his knowledge of future but didn't know anything about the Yondaime hokage and he was suspicious of the Sandaime for his role in separating them and didn't trust them.

He tried to contact Jiraya hoping that he would be on their side since he knew that Jiraya was very fond of Minato and since he was still named Naruto he had to be his godfather. But he couldn't get in contact with him and even tried to summon the toads hoping that it would work.

Since all his attempts at finding information were met with dead ends he focused his attention only on training. He started training in elemental manipulation in both wind and water, which was his secondary affinity. He used kagebunshin for it and hoped to complete it by the end of the year since he could only make 20 kagebunshins.

He also started practising in seals he knew that Uzumaki clan were famous for their skills in it and he wanted to be at least proficient in them. He knew the basics about them from his training trip with Jiraya who tried to get him learn but since showed no interest in them Jiraya finally gave it up as a lost cause. He was lucky to find a book on seals in the library during his night time explorations that explained mostly about the mechanics of seals. After going through he understood why it was left in the library as it didn't have any seals in them and mostly theory and ideas about the type of seals that could be developed and how to go about them.

He knew that experimenting with seals without a teacher and only the knowledge of basics was dangerous but since he didn't have any other options he studied them with the help of kagebunshins. Even that involved some risks since when powering up some seals the kagebunshins couldn't do the job due to chakra requirements and he had to be the one to do it. He had a few close calls because of that but having his bunshin ready to swap places with helped to avoid any major injuries.

His experiments in seals had produced results and he was able to produce many seals such as chakra restricting seal, barrier seals, seals to immobilize the opponents and his most useful one which makes it impossible to detect any chakra usage within the sealed area from the outside. With the help of that Naruto had been able to really cut loose in his training as he had no need to worry about being detected.

Not all of his experiments have been successful as proved in his failure to recreate **Hiraishin no Jutsu**. He knew the basics of it since he had been able to do that when he used his Kyuubified mode in the other universe. He never really understood the mechanics behind it before as it was mostly instinctual. He used to just focus on his target by getting a lock on his emotions which he could feel and then just teleporting to them. When he tried to recreate it using the seal marker he had to mostly go through trial and error.

It almost resulted in his death when he was testing it as the when the he reverse summoned himself to the seal it became too unstable and resulted in a very violent explosion. What happened after that had been mostly blurry but he could remember feeling the explosion getting pushed away from him and leaving him with only minor injuries. As his vision cleared slowly he noticed that there was something wrong with his eyes. He figured that the explosion most likely affected his eyes. He walked towards a nearby stream trying to figure out how he survived the explosion. He also concluded that he would have to abandon his experiments on Hiraishin no Jutsu since it was too risky. He was able to at least improve the reverse summoning seal required to summon his clones for using sage mode and was happy that he didn't need to carry the bulky scroll with him any longer and the seal tattoo on his arm will do the job.

When he finally arrived at the stream he was shocked to say the least to find that his eyes turned to the rippled pattern he had seen in Nagato's eyes. He had somehow obtained the Rinnegan!

He tried to understand why and how this happened. He knew that turmoil created by his near death somehow must have activated it as it did for Nagato. He knew from Madara's taunts during his fights with him that Nagato was an Uzumaki so maybe their clan was descended from Rikudo sennin and that might be the reason behind the manifestation of Rinnegan in Nagato and himself. But it didn't happen in his other life even though he was in many life threatening situations and the only difference was that he didn't have a Kyuubi sealed in him now.

He figured that in his other life when his life was in danger he drew on Kyuubi's chakra so that might have been the reason why he never activated the Rinnegan even if had it.

He tried to deactivate the Rinnegan as he didn't want others to know about it. It proved to be difficult but in the end he managed to do it.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Naruto had to completely change his training schedule so that he could master the Rinnegan abilities and the elemental nature manipulation had to be put on hold. He had to get used to the change in vision when Rinnegan was activated and how to access and utilise the abilities he had seen Nagato use during his battle with him and from the information given by Katsuyu, Tsunade's slug summon during the battle.

Through sheer effort and a bit of luck Naruto had been able to access the abilities of Deva path, Preta path to some extent. He was able to pull and push the some light objects and able to at least absorb the chakra from his shadow clones but his control and use of them has to increase before he could even think about using them for a combat situation.

He tried to read the shadow clones mind to access human path but couldn't seem to have any success with it. After some tries he realised that his failure was due to the fact that shadow clones have no soul in them. Since he knew how important it was to master this ability Naruto tried to leave the village to find the bandits and practise on them while leaving his shadow clone to take his place. But as he tried to leave the village he hit his first major obstacle in the form of the barrier around the whole village that could be seen now courtesy of the Rinnegan. He tried to identify blind spots in the barrier and get past it but couldn't find any way to circumvent it.

As he didn't want the ninja of the village after him for sneaking out of the village he had to abandon his plan to leave the village. In the end he started practising on animals to get a feel of their thoughts since they didn't have the complex mind of humans. It resulted in some success as he was able to read the animal's moods and was slowly getting better it.

Once he was sure that he could at least use human path's abilities without endangering the life of the test subject Naruto started search for any humans in the village he might be able to practise on. He practised on mostly isolated old people who were living alone so that even if they detected his presence in their mind no one would believe the ramblings of a senile old man.

It was difficult at first since the human mind was vastly different from animal's but slowly he had been able to make progress and now he could enter the minds of sleeping people without alerting them. But since he was mostly practising on the villagers he didn't know how effective it would be on ninjas but he didn't want to take that risk by practising on them and risk exposing himself yet.

**(End of Flashback)**

* * *

Naruto had changed a lot during the last year. He no longer had the same unwavering loyalty to the leaf village as he used to. He had even made plans to escape from the village with his sister if need be. As he and kasumi would be starting the academy this year it would be the ideal time to discuss some issues with kasumi as he doubted the Anbu would be monitoring them in the academy building unlike his meetings with her.

He planned to slowly broach the village towards them with kasumi so that he might be able to get an idea of her attitude towards the village. He would mention the idea of leaving the village to her and gauge her reactions so that when and if he needed to leave the village kasumi wouldn't be opposed to leave with him.

Naruto planned to read the mind of Hanare using human path abilities once he was sure about kasumi so that in the event of failure they could leave the village. He hoped that it wouldn't be come that as fleeing the village with kasumi would is going to be difficult. He had practised the Jutsu on genin of the village without alerting them to his presence and obtain knowledge from their minds. He hoped that reading the mind of Hanare wouldn't be difficult.


End file.
